My daughter recently left her flat to rent a new property in Cardiff but was told her £300 deposit on the old flat would not be returned as the landlady had to clean the flat.
When my daughter pointed out she had cleaned the flat from top to bottom and left it immaculately clean she was then given an excuse that there was dampness in a corner of the kitchen as the reason why the deposit was not returned.
Landlords and landladies have been accused since there were such people of not repairing and maintaining the properties they rent out, of hiking prices where there are shortages, evicting tenants without notice and not returning deposits. Many are listed as limited companies and so it is possible to check them out with Checkaco to see what sort of track record they have.
These are real cases from Money Saving Expert:
“I have just found out that my landlord has become bankrupt and their estate has gone to a corporate restructuring company to whom I now have to pay my rent. I paid a deposit before that scheme came in last year protecting deposits. Is my deposit in jeopardy and what are my rights as a tenant?”
“We have discovered in recent days that our landlord has not been paying the mortgage on the property that we have been renting since May of this year. We received a letter from a solicitor on behalf of our landlords’ mortgage lender saying that the property is being repossessed.”
“My landlord has informed me he is going bankrupt but he tried to see his mortgage advisor here because he hasn’t informed the mortgage company that he is sub-letting the property out.”
According to the Guardian in January rogue landlords are sitting on £1.2bn in deposits which are not protected by a deposit protection scheme. Don’t pay a deposit until you have checked out the landlord as they could be one of the rogues who won’t return a deposit, not pay the mortgage on the property and go bust without telling you but continue to take your rent. Always check them out first at https://checkaco.com/ and for £3.85 save yourself a lot of heartache, stress and cash.